European Bee-eater

The European bee-eater is a slender, richly coloured bird, 27–29cm long including the two long central tail feathers and weighing 44–78g. It has brown and yellow upperparts, green wings and a black bill. The sexes are alike, though females tend to have greener rather than golden shoulders. In non-breeding plumage it is much duller, with a blue-green back and no tail streamers. Its typical call is a mellow, liquid, burry prreee (Wikipedia, general species account).

It has the largest range of any bee-eater, breeding in southern and central Europe, northern and southern Africa and western Asia, and apart from the resident southern African birds it is strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa. It is gregarious, nesting in colonies in sandy banks, preferably near rivers, where each pair digs a long tunnel and lays five to eight white eggs; both parents incubate for about three weeks. In courtship the male feeds the female. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter visitor to India with localized summer breeding, but gives no trend or priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).